I have to wonder: When will Vice President JD Vance condemn his own administration?
Last month, Vance, a self-described foreign policy “realist” who scorns the practice of describing countries as “good guys” and “bad guys,” caused quite a stir at the Munich Security Conference in Germany. He invited controversy, however, not by advocating a more amoral, realpolitik foreign policy but by delivering a finger-wagging, highly moralistic lecture about, among other things, how our allies are insufficiently liberal about free expression. “In Britain, and across Europe, free speech, I fear, is in retreat,” he said more in sorrow than anger.
In an attempt to seem fair-minded, he even acknowledged that America is not perfect. “And, in the interest of comity, my friends, but also in the interest of truth, I will admit that sometimes the loudest voices for censorship have come not from within Europe but from within my own country, where the prior administration threatened and bullied social media companies to censor so-called misinformation.”
The implication, of course, was that his own administration would be an unvarnished advocate for, and defender of, the liberal value of free speech.
Now, I should say that I agree with many of Vance’s criticisms of our allies and of the Biden administration. But I think it was bizarre that the man who thinks we should be less judgy about the internal affairs of oppressive regimes chose to sound like a Wilsonian scold to our democratic allies. Suffice it to say that just because he was wrong to use that venue to say it doesn’t mean everything he said was wrong.